


Waiting for the dawn

by JenJo



Series: 52 Short Stories in 52 Weeks [41]
Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Clint's in hospital, M/M, and Bucky's staring at the wall waiting for him to wake up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-29
Updated: 2016-12-29
Packaged: 2018-09-13 03:09:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 894
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9104104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JenJo/pseuds/JenJo
Summary: Bucky woke up with a splitting headache, and what he was pretty sure was a (formerly) broken nose. He groaned, pushing himself up and looking around. The weird town was gone, replaced with a road. He was kneeling beside their car, alone.Clint.Bucky looked around frantically, seeing Clint lying face down on the ground. Bucky rushed over on his hands and knees, ignoring the wave of nausea he felt at the sudden movement. He did not trust his legs to be able to carry him.“Clint!” He checked for a pulse; Clint was still alive, but unconscious. He did not look to be in a good way.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Week 46: A Story about Anger  
> Follows on directly from the previous instalment.

 

Bucky woke up with a splitting headache, and what he was pretty sure was a (formerly) broken nose. He groaned, pushing himself up and looking around. The weird town was gone, replaced with a road. He was kneeling beside their car, alone.

_ Clint. _

Bucky looked around frantically, seeing Clint lying face down on the ground. Bucky rushed over on his hands and knees, ignoring the wave of nausea he felt at the sudden movement. He did not trust his legs to be able to carry him.

“Clint!” He checked for a pulse; Clint was still alive, but unconscious. He did not look to be in a good way. 

Bucky, still trying to catch his breath, crawled over to their car, unlocking the boot (and thanking Thor and every other deity in existence that the key was still in his pocket), and pulling out the emergency phone.

_ “Stark’s Rescue Service. You get stuck, we will unstuck you _ .”

Normally, Clint would make the call. Normally, Clint would joke at Stark’s ridiculous tagline.

( _ “That the best you can do Stark?” _

_ “‘Unstuck You’? Really?” _

_ “You’re the one who is stuck Stark”) _

But Clint was not the one on the phone right now. Clint was the one lying unconscious.

“You have our coordinates. Clint’s not waking up.”

No nonsense reply, no way that Stark would ignore or misinterpret the serious nature of the call. There wasn’t even a pause before Bucky heard a reply.  _ “We’re half an hour away. Stay put.” _

 

~

 

_‘Near death’_ , was what they were telling Bucky.

_ “Clint was near death.” _

_ “Clint had to be revived.” _

_ “Clint was almost gone.” _

Bucky heard the words, but did not comprehend them. Not really. Because they implied something terrible, something that was not worth even contemplating as a hypothetical scenario; they implied a future without Clint by his side. 

Bucky was fine, he had been told. Tests had revealed that he had nothing to worry about, he had nothing worse than a hangover.

Somehow, Bucky did not get much relief from this.

He sat outside Clint’s room, on the floor, leaning back against the opposite wall. He was staring at the white wall opposite him, and not for the first time, Bucky seriously contemplated repainting the place. 

It was a thought that Clint agreed with. Clint  _ hated  _ the white walls, and joked that they should paint them purple. Bucky would shake his head, and suggest a less offensive colour.

_ (“What’s wrong with purple?” _

_ “It’s so in your face.” _

_ “Yeah, it really is,” Clint had said with a wide smile. “It really is.” _ )

_ When you wake up Clint, I’ll paint the wall purple. Just for you _ .

“You are looking real intently at that wall, what did it do to you?”

“It’s white,” Bucky replied to Steve without looking up from the wall. 

Steve sat down next to Bucky, also staring at the wall. “Makes sense.”

“Don’t want to talk about it,” Bucky said before Steve could say anything else.

“About what?”

Bucky closed his eyes, curling his fists on top of his knees. “Don’t.”

He heard Steve blow out a breath before speaking. “What do you want?”

“For Clint to wake up.” It wasn’t even a question. Steve should have known what his answer would be.  _ Like I’d be thinking about anything else right now. _

“What happened out there?”

Bucky shook his head. “I don’t know. The car wouldn’t start, we went to the nearest town, there was nothing good about the place. Should have known, should have got out of there.”

“How could you have known?”

“I should have!” Bucky shook his head, lifting a hand to cover his eyes. “He knew. He had a bad feeling about the place.”

“You can’t blame yourself for this.”

“Easier than the truth,” Bucky muttered, not expecting Steve to respond.

Which is when Steve responded. “What is the truth?”

“That I failed, and now he’s in there, and I’m here, and…” Bucky shook his head, opening his eyes and looking at Steve. “And it’s all  _ wrong _ .”

“You’re allowed to be angry, there is nothing wrong with being angry.”

Bucky shook his head, laughing humourlessly. “I don’t think I’m angry, so much as I’m disappointed.”

Steve frowned. “Disappointed?”

“Yeah,” Bucky sighed, leaning his head back against the wall. “See, I had a plan. It was a pretty good plan too.”

“You planned on breaking down in the middle of nowhere?”

“No. I planned on driving home, and asking Clint to marry me.”

“Really?” 

Bucky turned his head to glare at Steve. Steve, for his part, held up his hands.

“Right, right, sorry. So, you were going to propose.”

“Yeah,” Bucky breathed out, looking back at the wall. “I was.”

“You change your mind?”

“Course not.”

“So there is nothing stopping you from asking him when he wakes up.” Bucky remained silent, causing Steve to turn to watch him worriedly. “Clint  _ will  _ wake up.”

“We don’t even know what hit us,” Bucky whispered. “How can they fix what they don’t understand?”

Steve put an arm around Bucky’s shoulders, and he turned into the hug, resting his head on Steve’s shoulder and closing his eyes against the tears.

Bucky wasn’t sure how long he sat there with Steve, but he was sure it was a while. The silence was only broken when the door to Clint’s room opened, Bucky’s head snapping up instantly.

“He is awake.”

**Author's Note:**

> To be continued...  
> Thank you for reading :)


End file.
